Orangeburg County buying target system; new shooting range built for law enforcement

County Council unanimously agreed Monday to spend about $89,000 on an InVeris turning target system for the shooting range. The range will be used by law enforcement personnel requiring training.

Orangeburg County Administrator Harold Young described the system as a “quick-turn, 360 target system.”

“This is a quick turn-around mounting 3D target system which we specifically had to have for the shooting range because the shooting range is a combination range where the target system is out and the shooting range itself will be inside the building,” Young said.

“It will be a target system where the targets come to them but the shooting portion – where you shoot from – will be indoors,” he said. “The target system will go from the inside all the way back of the shooting target area, which expands the range of where they can shoot from.”

“That is why we had to have a ground-mounted system that has to trolley back and forth from the building back to the back,” Young said.

The county awarded West Columbia-based Lyn-Rich Contracting Company a contract in September 2021 to build the indoor shooting range for $274,465.

In other business:

• Council members say they will evaluate over the next two weeks whether to return to in-person county council meetings.

The matter was brought up by Councilman Joseph Garvin.

“My constituents are asking me when County Council is going back into chamber,” Garvin said. “They keep asking that.”

Council Chairman Johnnie Wright said a final decision has not been made.

“In the next two weeks or so, we will do some evaluation … and find out how we think the situation is and then make that decision,” Wright said. “We will try to get back in as soon as we think it is safe enough for everybody to convene in there.”

“Everyone is different on how they see things,” Wright said. “I think council will have to collectively make that decision but at the same time we are also going by the science.”

Council has conducted meetings virtually for the past two years due to COVID. The current emergency ordinance allowing virtual meetings expires in two weeks.

• The names of those who will be honored on the Orangeburg County Courthouse’s Martin Luther King Jr. Monument will be announced at the next County Council meeting.

Last year, the county announced it would be honoring individuals in the community who have made contributions in the fields of justice, community, government and first responders. The names of these individuals will be placed on the monument.

• Orangeburg County Council on Monday gave unanimous second reading approval to the sale of the Way Building on Memorial Plaza to Claflin University. The university plans to turn the building into the Claflin University Downtown Community Center.

It will house the Claflin University Center for Social Justice, Pathway from Prison program, young professionals’ studio housing and a business incubator site.

The university has received $3 million in federal funds to improve the building.

• Council gave unanimous second reading to an ordinance placing Italian fabric maker Pratrivero USA Inc. into a joint county industrial park. The company also received a fee-in-lieu of taxes incentive and special source revenue credit. Both are designed to reduce property taxes the industry will have to pay.

Pratrivero announced last month it is planning to invest $17.6 million and create 34 new jobs in the former Mayer Industries building at 3777 Industrial Boulevard. Industrial Boulevard is near Interstate 26’s Exit 145.

Operations are expected to be online in September 2022.

• Council gave unanimous second reading approval to rezoning the .63-acre piece of property at 203 Third Street in Eutawville from residential-general to a rural community district to allow a second manufactured, doublewide home on the property.

The Orangeburg County Planning Commission had previously approved the request as there was no public opposition to the rezoning.

• Residents were reminded April is countywide litter cleanup month.

• Council read a proclamation for 2022 National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week held April 10-16.

The proclamation recognizes dispatch employees at the Orangeburg County Emergency Communication Center for their work in serving as a link between emergency, fire and law enforcement personnel and the general public.

• Council read a resolution honoring Orangeburg native and South Carolina State University graduate Dr. Monifa Bellinger McKnight. McKnight was named the superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland in February.

MCPS is the largest school district in the state of Maryland and the 14th largest district in the nation, hosting 165,000 students. McKnight is the first African-American woman to lead the school district.

• Council unanimously appointed Claflin University President Dr. Dwaun Warmack to the Orangeburg County Development Commission, representing District Seven. The seat was formerly held by former Claflin University President Dr. Henry Tisdale. Tisdale retired in July 2019.

• Council unanimously appointed Lorraine R. Shuler to the Tax Equalization Board/Orangeburg County Board of Assessment Appeals for District Six.

• Council unanimously appointed Charles L. Hart to the Orangeburg County Fire Commission for District Four.

• Council entered into closed session to discuss a number of economic development items, including: Project EA, Project Golden Eagle and Project Poplar. It also received updates on Project Circus, SC Gateway-Utilities, Shamrock Commerce Center industrial park and the Western Orangeburg County Industrial Park.